High Court Takes Case on Vincent Foster

Yahoo Politics ^ | 5-5-03 | GINA HOLLAND

[Lance Romance]

High Court Takes Case on Vincent Foster

20 minutes ago

By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it would spell out when the public has a right to information in law enforcement files, like recordings of emergency calls and pictures from crime scenes.

The justices will consider next fall whether the government must release post-mortem pictures of former White House attorney Vincent Foster, resurrecting a 10-year-old controversy over Foster's suicide.

The high court will balance people's privacy interests, in this case involving Foster's family, against the rights of others under a public records law. The Bush administration had urged the court to review the case. At stake is "the privacy interest of millions of individuals, about whom personal and sensitive information is stored in government files," Solicitor General Theodore Olson told the court.

Foster's death, in the first year of Bill Clinton's presidency, spurred a legion of conspiracy theories that he was murdered in a White House cover-up. Foster was a kindergarten friend of Clinton and former law partner of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr headed one of the many investigations that determined Foster killed himself on July 20, 1993, at a Civil War-era park near Washington.

The justices will decide if a California attorney has a right to pictures of Foster's body. The attorney, Allan Favish, already has been given more than 100 pictures, including photos of Foster's car and the Virginia park site. He has posted some on a Web site.

Lower courts have split over the release of more explicit pictures.

An appeals court in California said that four of the pictures could be made public. A court in Washington said they could not because there was not compelling evidence of government misconduct.

One of the pictures, which shows Foster's hand holding a gun, has already been published in Time magazine. None of the photos show his face or the bullet wounds. He died of a single shot to the head from an antique revolver.

The Supreme Court had scheduled arguments in another government records case involving a weapons database this spring. Justices dismissed the case, however, when Congress passed a provision restricting the release of the information which included names of gun shops and gun owners whose weapons were used in crimes.

Olson, the Bush administration's Supreme Court lawyer, said justices should use this case to clarify when lower courts should allow the release of information under the Freedom of Information Act. The law allows reporters and others to get unclassified government records that officials would not otherwise release.

Olson said that five investigations concluded that Foster, who was depressed, killed himself. He said a sixth probe "by an unsatisfied private citizen" seemed unnecessary.

The public information law allows officials to withhold information that could cause "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

The attorney for the Foster family, James Hamilton, said the release of more photos would be damaging to the relatives, "invading their memory of a loved one, by subjecting them to harassment from any number of media outlets, and by leaving them vulnerable to the unwitting viewing of profoundly traumatic images."

He said that the rationale used to order the release of the photos could also be used to get information about the terrorist attacks, including voice mail messages left by people trapped in the World Trade Center.

The case is Office of Independent Counsel v. Favish, 02-954.

[ModelBreaker]

I have a long-time good friend (my best man) who was once a significant Dem player. He saw (with his own eyes) Hill and Foster openly tongue kissing in a hallway in the white house. Not trying to hide it at all.

So I rate that rumor as very likely to be true.

[mil-vet]

It used to be fairly "common knowledge" - in fact, he apparently had some kind of misguided sense of responsibility to her, supposedly due to the "intimate connection" between them. The day the list of those to be called to testify in the Whitewater investigation came out, and he found himself on it, he went to her to tell her he would not perjure himself if called.

48 hours later, he was dead.

The official report stated he had "swallowed" a .38; the back of his head was intact, which shows this to be a lie. In actuality, he had a "small caliber" hole under his jaw up into the top of his head. The whole thing is a Clinton cover-up, just like TWA 800 and several other scandles involving one or more fatalities.....

[Tymesup]

Vince's body was found in Fort Marcy Park in a state of repose - one witness thought he was sleeping until he got a closer look. If Foster had shot himself in the park, it is unlikely his body would have looked like this. It is further unlikely the gun would have stayed on his finger.

There is no record of Vince leaving the White House that day. The technician in charge of the tapes died.

Solicitor Olson ought to be interested in seeing that the truth gets out here. His wife, Freeper Barbara Olson, perished on one of the 9/11 planes.

[Cordova Belle]

Heavens, yes. That was well-known at the time--but smothered immediately by the (pro-Clinton) mainstream media.

[NJJ]

Check out Jim Noble's theory on her election gambit on one of the "Is she running?" threads.

As I understand it, the statistical probability (for people who knew the Clintons) is that the Democratic presidential candidate will die in an airplane crash in October and Hillary will be named to run in his place.

[green team 1999]

conspiracy

[aristeides]

Congratulations, Allan.

This article seems to say that Solicitor General Olson supported the Supreme Court taking the case. I thought he opposed it. If he did oppose it, it's significant the court took the case, since they usually agree with the Solicitor General.

[AJFavish]

This only grants a hearing on the petition filed by the government. In this part of the case I am defending the order to release 4 of the 10 photos. The widow's petition sought the same thing as the government's, to block release of the 4 photos. But that petition is still pending and the Supreme Court office worker I spoke to today said a decision on that petition won't be made public until May 19. It makes no sense to grant the government's petition and not grant the widow's.

Also, and more importantly, me petition to get the other 6 photos released is also pending. I cannot figure out why they would grant the government's and not also grant the widow's and grant mine since the same legal argument is at stake in all three petitions, i.e., do the survivors have a privacy interest in photos that do not depict them.

My petition is case no. 02-409. The government's is 02-954 and the widow's is 02-599.

Search the Supreme Court's docket for "favish" at www.supremecourtus.gov.

The briefs are at my web site at www.allanfavish.com.

[aristeides]

It certainly was noticeable when Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash.

I have long known that a number of people who were making trouble for Hitler died in suspicious plane crashes (Dr. Todt, General Dietl, Admiral Horthy's son). I am reading a new book about the Nazis which says that the head of the National Socialist Teachers' League, Hans Schemm, was the Nazi was most nearly approached Hitler in charismatic appeal. Schemm died in 1935 in an airplane accident. Can anybody point me to where I can get more information about that accident?

[green team 1999]

Once Upon A Time In Arkansas....and frontline leans left.

[green team 1999]

the victim and a member of the conspiracy!

[martianagent]

In the last year of his life, Foster had made several trips to Switzerland, the last requiring $1500 in air fares and two or three hours of Foster's time (in Switzerland) before he was on the plane back. How many days in your life have you ever felt like spending $1500 and 20 hours in airplanes for the vicarious thrill of being in Switzerland for two hours?

The guy died from pressure on the brain, i.e. he knew too much.

[green team 1999]

Inaccuracies Regarding Foster's Death

There follows a list of suspicious events, observations, and circumstances, taken from the 2,726 pages of the 1994 Senate Hearings and Report Volumes that cover the death of Vince Foster. To find out how you can receive a 160 page synopsis of this material, put together by Stanford and MIT grad Hugh Sprunt, direct your inquiry to HSprunt@aol.com.

1. While both the Fiske report and the Senate hearings volumes refer to the Foster "suicide" note as if it were proven to be genuine, three independent handwriting experts have determined conclusively that it is a FORGERY. Yet the falsehood continues without question.
2. No fingerprints on the gun.
3. No proof that it was his gun.
4. Suspicious people seen in and around victim's car just before the body was found.
5. Eyewitnesses saw the victim's briefcase in his car, yet the briefcase vanished.
6. All 35mm film of crime scene was either "overexposed" or it vanished.
7. Most of the Polaroid photos vanished.
8. "Independent" investigator Fiske was forced to concede that the victim's head _had_ been moved---after death had taken place and before his body was photographed.
9. Car keys were not found with victim at crime scene, nor were they to be found in his car, yet the conclusion that was immediately arrived at . . was suicide!
10. The first non-official to see the body said their was no gun in sight; so did the first official to see the body.
11. No blood splatter found. (High velocity .38 bullets through the mouth and head leave spatter!)
12. No bone fragments were found, yet part of the victim's skull was missing, according to some reports.
13. X-rays vanished with no explanation.
14. Dr. Beyer, the examining physician, has a history of mistaking homicide for suicide. In some instances he stated X-rays had been taken; in other instances he stated they had not. Dr. Beyer was 75 yr. old at the time of the autopsy.
15. According to some reports, Foster's head wound not consistent with a high velocity .38 caliber bullet. Dr. Haut's statement to the FBI was that the exit hole was very small. In total contradiction, the Fiske report says Dr. Haut's determination was that the hole was very large.
16. No fingerprints were found on the torn-up "suicide" note. But a palm print was. No determination was made that it was Foster's palm print.
17. Wound seen on Foster's neck by paramedics. One described it as a bullet hole.
18. Dr.Haut & paramedics said they viewed the body in a location that is 200 feet from the site officially described.
19. The cannon near where some witnesses say the body was found has been removed from the park.
20. One paramedic listed the death as a homicide on his report.
21. Numerous hairs and carpet fibers covered Foster's clothing. But his car was never checked to see if any of the same fibers could be found on the driver's seat, as surely there would have been found, had he actually driven himself to Fort Marcy Park.
22. Whereabouts of victim in hours before death remains a mystery.
23. The list of items in his "suicide note" could simply have been some reflection of his plans to resign his White House position.
24. Only two bullets in the gun. No matching bullets were to be found in his home or car.
25. The victim planned to give his visiting sister a tour of the White House the next day.
26. The victim's friend and attorney, Jim Lyons, was coming from Colorado to meet with him the next day.
27. Foster had a full lunch before leaving to kill himself, was jovial, and told his staff he would be back later in the day.
28. In spite of an exhaustive search, no matching bullet was ever found.
29. The attitude of the body was not consistent with suicide. It was laid out straight, with arms neatly at his side.
30. No one heard the shot. Few people in the surrounding area were even asked. The closest house, under construction, was only 400 ft. away.
31. The FBI was kept out of the initial investigation.
32. The lead investigator assigned to go to the body site was performing his first homicide investigation.
33. Victim's appointment book was never found.
34. Victim had been making _overnight_, two-day trips to Switzerland which his wife didn't know about. Indications are that he had a Swiss bank account which had been mysteriously emptied of $2.7 million a week before he died. His last planned trip to Switzerland had, for reasons unknown, been canceled.
35. Victim had been a $300,000 a year lawyer, yet in last weeks before his death he had a chronically overdrawn checking account!
36. Police were prevented from searching victim's home and office.
37. Victim's widow was not interviewed for ten days after the death. Apparently she was shown a gun, silver in color, that was identified as the weapon used. She said it looked like the "silver-colored revolver" she had previously seen at home. The ABC photo very clearly shows a black gun in Foster's hand.
38. No proof that gun found with victim had fired the fatal shot.
39. Photos and reports in the possession of the Park Police and FBI are being kept from public view. (Just like the Zapruder film in 1963.)
40. The Fiske Report contains numerous factual errors regarding time and geography at crime scene. It reports a large pool of blood under Foster's head, even though no one who was at the site made any such report, and some of them, including Dr. Haut and Corey Ashford, specifically stated to the FBI that there was no blood on the ground. (Ashford is one of the medical technicians who picked Foster's body up to remove it from the scene.)
41. One vehicle seen at park by police and rescue eyewitnesses is ignored in the official record of the case.
42. Park Police concluded their investigation before they sent the gun for testing to see if it could fire.
43. Death was ruled a suicide before the investigators viewed the body.
44. The crime scene was never totally secured. (There are access roads near the body-site, in the opposite direction from the parking lot where Foster's car was found. Access to the body, from these roads, was never blocked off in any way.
45. No damage whatsoever to victim's teeth from the recoil of a .38, allegedly placed in his mouth. This pistol has a rather substantial steel aiming device mounted at the top of the end of the 4-inch barrel.
46. Conflicting testimony re: the time at which the victim was identified.
47. There is no evidence to support the Fiske report that the victim had lost weight . The only evidence is that he had gained weight.
48. Conflicting testimony as to when the White House was told of the death---from as early as 6:00 PM, according to the initial report from Chelsea's nanny, to the official time of 8:30 PM.
49. The phone number of a Secret Service officer was found in the notebook of Park Police investigator Rolla. Immediately following this entry was the address and phone number of Vince Foster. When asked about this during his deposition, Rolla got nervous and flustered.
50. Eyewitness testimony is in disagreement as to whether victim's car was initially found locked. Some say it was locked. But the car keys were "found" much later, at the morgue, in a front pocket that had already been searched at the scene. How then was Foster's car opened up?!
51. Because of interference with prosecutor Rodriguez' inquiry into this case, he resigned in protest.
52. Marsha Scott met with Foster, her friend of 20 years, in an unusual 1-2 hour closed-door meeting the day before he died. After Foster died, the _only_ thing Ms. Scott said she could remember discussing, from her long meeting, was that Foster had a good weekend. (!)
53. The ABC News photo published showing Foster's hand with the gun is not consistent with eyewitness accounts of the scene.
54. The victim's office, a secondary crime scene, was immediately cleared of evidence and documents by Clinton administration officials.
55. The victim's personal effects including his pager were returned to the White House within 24 hours---before they could be analyzed by the police.
56. Certain White House personnel, whose names are (for reasons unknown) not in the official record, were prepared to break into Park Police Officer Rolla's desk drawer to obtain a key to the evidence locker where Foster's possessions were being kept. (P. 91 of Hugh Sprunt's report)
57. The neighborhood around the crime scene at Ft. Marcy Park was not canvassed by police, to see if anyone had heard a shot, until two years after the shooting took place.
58. Several police officers in Arkansas have given sworn depositions that they were told of Foster's death at 6:00 PM EST, _before_ police and rescue workers arrived at Ft. Marcy Park. One of them immediately informed the wife of the then-governor of Arkansas.
59. It is unclear when and where the victims car keys were actually found. One rescue worker says they were found on the way to the morgue. Another says they were found at the morgue.
60. Police and rescue workers have been forbidden to discuss the case.
61. No mention has ever been made as to whether there were powder burns inside of Foster's mouth and whether they were consistent with the bullet and spent shell found in the gun at the scene.

---

[Stone Mountain]

I think she swings both ways Is there any evidence that Hillary likes women, or has she been connected with any woman? I'm just wondering if this rumor has any legs, or is it more of a Strong Woman that we Don't Like = Lesbian type thing...

[Pagey]

Well Done!!! I own the 2 separate books by Christopher Ruddy, and you have put forth a FINE POST! One book has every article he printed in either the Washingtion Times or Post ( I'm at work )and the other is "T.S.D.O.V.F. The Investigation". If anyone really wants "Two Taking Off The Blinders Off Books", Acquire them both! You'll see that The Park Police were inept and fumblers, 10 whole years before Chandra Levy.The contrast in the situations and circumstances will astound you.(That is an understatement by the way.)It has also been proven (and made public by Chris Ruddy)that the gun was made from several different 'older,vintage' pieces,impossible to trace.Sure---he owned that type of gun didn't he?

[Pagey]

OOPS! "One book has every article he wrote for Newspapers regarding this 'alleged suicide' in either the Washington Times/ Post or N.Y. Times". Very Thorough.My books are all marked up in yellow and blue ink for posterity.

[green team 1999]

that was a throwaway gun!,vince foster was a lawyer,he knew a lot of problems could happen if ever caught with a throwaway gun. no way it was his.

[AJFavish]

Today's UPI story on the U.S. Supreme Court taking my Foster FOIA case have several errors. Unfortunately WorldNetDaily and Newsmax have linked to the UPI story. Among the errors:

1. I do not represent Accuracy in Media. I represent myself as a plaintiff in this case. I represented AIM in a couple of their Foster FOIAs when I was a staff attorney at Judicial Watch in 1998-99. My personal FOIA case was filed before any of AIM's FOIA suits were filed. The UPI story adopts a government lie that I filed my suit or request after the AIM case was lost.

2. The Ninth Circuit did not order of the 10 body photos released. It ordered 4 of the 10 photos released.

3. The official death weapon was not a pistol, but a revolver.

4. The statement that "House and Senate committees all concluded that Foster committed suicide" is misleading. No House Committee so concluded. A sole House member, William Clinger issues his own report, which was very cursory and does not provide sufficient to substance to merit anybody's attention. The Senate Whitewater committee did not investigate the issue of how Foster was killed, but only the procedures used by the FBI and Park Police in investigating the death.

[Saundra Duffy]

We have not forgotten; Gary Condit's rotten.

[Shooter 2.5]

#37 Victim's widow was not interviewed for ten days after the death. Apparently she was shown a gun, silver in color, that was identified as the weapon used. She said it looked like the "silver-colored revolver" she had previously seen at home. The ABC photo very clearly shows a black gun in Foster's hand.

I'm going to repeat what I wrote in a post before about the gun. If you read the FBI interview with Mrs. Foster it was a simple misunderstanding over which gun was being discussed. Mrs. Foster thought the FBI was asking her about the nickeled gun and the FBI didn't correct her to tell her which gun was used.

Padding inconsistancies in the investigation doesn't do anyone any good. Try to be as accurate as possible so you don't lose credibility.

The next point would be the statement about the Zapruder film. (Just like the Zapruder film in 1963.)

Are you trying to say no one has ever seen the Zapruder film?